Reimagining the northern Australian beef industry; review of feedbase opportunities for growth

E. Charmley; C. Gardiner; I. Watson; J. O’Reagain

doi:10.1071/RJ25009

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Contents Vol 47(4)

Reimagining the northern Australian beef industry; review of feedbase opportunities for growth

E. Charmley ^A ^* , C. Gardiner

^B , I. Watson ^A and J. O’Reagain

^B

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Private Mail Bag PO Aitkenvale, Townsville, Qld 4814, Australia.

^B College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4814, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: ed.charmley@csiro.au

The Rangeland Journal 47, RJ25009 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ25009

Submitted: 19 March 2025 Accepted: 13 June 2025 Published: 10 July 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Australian Rangeland Society. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The current beef industry in northern Australia was established through the adoption of innovative schemes and ideas that transformed the economic viability of the industry in the 20th century. In this paper, we argue that a key driver of beef production, the nutrition of the animal or feedbase, can be sustainably exploited with novel ideas to affect a paradigm shift in the northern beef industry in the 21st century. Although the current economics of beef production limit adoption of ‘out-there’ ideas, it is nonetheless useful to consider them. It is contended that future global protein shortages for human nutrition may change the economic balance in favour of more creative ideas to utilise the existing and potential, as yet untapped, feedbase. The underlying premise is that the beef industry could better take advantage of the varied feedbase opportunities that exist in the north. In doing so, the industry would shift the balance from a predominantly pastoral system to a mixed model where extensive grazing co-exists with intensive beef production at the regional scale. Concomitant with this change, the long-term productive and environmental conditions of the industry could be improved. For example, intensification in some locations would allow de-intensification in others. In this review, we focus on five potential ‘game changers’ for the industry, some of which are proven but, for reasons discussed, under-adopted and some of which are more ‘blue sky’. These game changers are legumes, silage, irrigation, co-products from the crop and vegetable industries and ligno-cellulosic feedstocks. These are all technically feasible and lend themselves to regionally integrated production systems that take advantage of the opportunities across the north, including land, sunshine, water, people, infrastructure, markets.

Keywords: beef production, co-products, feedbase, legumes, mosaic irrigation, silage, systems, tropical, upcycling.

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